Permanently change a single file's icon

I have organized some backups as ISO files, and would like to have a different icon for each file.

I have created an .ICO for each file.

IconChanger worked great, but only while the program was installed. Once I had all the icons changed and thought I was through and uninstalled the program, all the icons went back to their original disc icon.

Is there a way to permanently change a single file's icon, so if I move it to another machine it will retain the icon?

-Matthew

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Preferred Solution:
Permanently change a single file's icon

I recommend downloading and running Reimage. It's a computer repair tool that has been proven to identify and fix many Windows problems with a high level of success.

Is there a way to permanently change a single file's icon, so if I move it to another machine it will retain the icon?

-Matthew

Technically, yes, a "resource editor" can be used to alter icons embedded in executables. However, once you start haxx0ring an app, most software vendors would see that as a violation of their terms of use, which is why I won't provide further technical detail (I realise you're asking for entirely innocent reasons).

I can't imagine it would be worth your time though. It's just an icon, after all.

I had problems with vista, so i created a new partition, installed a different version of vista, then formatted the original OS partition. (obviously i had no idea what i was doing, but thats beyond the point)Now i have a problem with the new partition i created for vista.The default drive on where to save things is C:however, C: is my OS drivehow can i change it so that all files are downloaded to D: without manually entering it everytime?

Or, would simply changing the Drive letters work?if so, how do it do it? Ive tried using the vista maintenance tools, but i get an error saying it cannot be changed because of files in use.

Or, should i get a new harddrive, remove the old drive, install a partition on it named c:, install vista on that. (i would assume the original vista disc i have has the ability to create a partition on it when booting from disc.. its preactivated)

Im not really looking for the easiest or cheapest way to do it. I have just googled the crap out of this, and im not really finding the info im looking for, because im not really sure what its called.So any suggestions would be very helpful

I have a large cluster of files that I'm trying to pack into a single self-extracting executable and have so far been able to accomplish this with both Installshield 10.5 and Winzip Self-Extractor 4.0, however I cannot get the icon to appear for the final .exe file (right now, windows default white window/blue title icon is being shown)

I tried using the utilities built into NSIS, Installshield, Winzip Self-Extractor and even used Reshacker and eXe on the final .exe file to change the icon. According to each solution, the icon files are indeed embedded in the .exe, but they refuse to show in explorer.

So, I figured this problem may be related to the large file size of the .exe (1.39 GB), prehaps in scanning the file for .ico's it could not parse the whole file and gives up.

I tested this using Winzip Self-Extractor to create a smaller .exe (10 MB) and indeed, the icon shows up, working as intended.

However, this does not solve my problem, and I'm stuck at this point. There might be a way to get that icon to show up despite the operating system's trouble but I have not found it yet. If anyone can provide any insight or point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.

I have tested this on: Windows XP PRO, 2002, SP3

A:Single .exe file icon issue

It a limitation in the OS. Same thing happens with WinRar archives.
Up to 413,556 KiB the icon is displayed. At 465,860 KiB it is not displayed.

On Win2K the limit is between 277,601 KiB and 326,468 KiB.
Vista and Win7 have no problem displaying the icon up to 3,301,059 KiB, the largest archive file I have.

The larger the file is the longer it takes for the icon to be displayed, so I'm guessing the Icon is stored at the end of the file, and XP has a limit on how far into a file it will look.

I don't have any files in between those sizes to pin it down any closer. Both sizes have the same number of bits, even breaking them down into sectors or clusters, so I couldn't guess at the actual limit. However Windows is calculating the pointer to the icon image, it's probably overflowing, so it "wraps around" and points to the wrong part of the file. When it can't find a valid image there, it uses the generic one.

Windows 7 Desktop is showing tiny thumbnails on image file icons instead of the *real* image file icon like it shows in all the folders in "Details" view. How do I get it to stop that behavior and revert to showing plain image file icons on the desktop like Windows XP does?

I tried [right-click on desktop > Personalize > Change desktop icons] but nothing there to affect image file icons on the desktop.

I did a thorough search here and found several posts regarding customizing icon behavior but none address this exact problem, so please re-examine the description of the problem before telling me this issue has been answered many times before. Thanks!!!

I just uncompressed a group of mp3 files that are all related (album) and last file properties are not able to be modified which is a problem since I want to play it on my Ipod and the file does not sort correctly. Any suggestions?

Hi, Im new here, and I bleed easily so be nice. I quite often place files on my win8 desktop while im working on various stuff and have a problem with icons I cant fix, for example: I have a number of PDF files currently on my desktop and my pdf program is foxit. I DONT WANT TO CHANGE THE PROGRAM ICON, just the icons of the files it makes. I had the same issue on win7 and i know I can change folder view options to "show icons and not thumbnails" but unfortunately that screws up my image icons.

In windows 7, "types" and "nirsoft files type manager" allowed you to change the file type icon from the thumbnail to whatever icon you wanted. These 2 progs plus another ive tried dont work in win 8pro?

Can anybody suggest a solution please?

A:Change file icon

Originally Posted by windozer

Hi, Im new here, and I bleed easily so be nice. I quite often place files on my desktop while im working on various stuff and have a problem with icons I cant fix, for example: I have a number of PDF files currently on my desktop and my pdf program is foxit. I DONT WANT TO CHANGE THE PROGRAM ICON, just the icons of the files it makes. I had the same issue on win7 and i know I can change folder view options to "show icons and not thumbnails" but unfortunately that screws up my image icons.

In windows 7, "types" and "nirsoft files type manager" allowed you to change the file type icon from the thumbnail to whatever icon you wanted. These 2 progs plus another ive tried dont work in win 8pro?

Can someone guide me in how to change the icon of an exe file. Actually I have developed a few softwares and now I want to put the logo of my company as the icon of the file. How can I do that? Is there any software that can help me to do it???

Howdy,I am using windows xp. I created a cd that autostarts and uses an icon I made for the disc in "my computer". How can I change the icon for a .exe file? I want to use the icon I already created for the disc.

Hi. Want to change a file icon. I have FoxIt, but all my PDF's show up with the icon that is the non-icon. Don't know how else to explain it. I think it's the icon that shows up if you have a file that isn't supported by a program on a computer. I've downloaded a couple images I could use for icons.

When I right click on a PDF and click properties, there is no option to change the icon. No idea why. Is there a way to make this option appear? Or a way to change the icon some other way. This is driving me nuts. I've Googled several different things to find a resolution but so far no luck. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

A:Change File Icon

Hello Fletch, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Using step 5 in the tutorial below can help show you how to change the default icon for .pdf file extentions.

I have Googled a lot, but found no answer: when I launch a .bat file to run a 16 bit DOS-based program (XyWrite) on my 32 bit Win 7, I see on the taskbar the blue and white icon that is attached here (bottom image). I have a yellow custom icon that I want to use, and I have Resource Hacker and AdSevenIconChanger to make the substitution, but to use them, I need to find the Win7-supplied icon that's to be replaced. But I can't find it. It's not in imageres or shell32.

I also have an .exe version of the shortcut, which also results in the same unlocateable blue-and-white icon. I use a .bat file to launch XyWrite because that at least allows me to get the right icon on the desktop and in Quick Launch--per screen shot below.

Maybe I could determine the mystery icon's location by doing something with the icon cache?

Or, here's a wild thought--is there a way to search the web for an image as such? I mean: could I upload the mystery icon to Google or somewhere and have Google use that image to search Google images?

A:Can't change .bat file icon on taskbar

My God! Google does have the ability to search by image. Apparently, this icon is in grpconv.exe--whatever that is!

I am trying to figure out how i can change the cover art/icon for my DVD movies (mkv) so they dont all have the same default icon. I would like to change the icon to like a DVD cover for each movie so its easy to look through them and find the movie you want, not to mention it looks so much better. If anyone knows how to do this I would greatly appreciate your help. Also, please keep in mind that im obviously not computer savy like the rest of you in here,so if you could possibly break it down into more lamens terms i would also appreciate it. Thanks!

Hi there. I'm wondering, is there any way possible for me to change the icon of an individual file icon, without making that file a shortcut?

I'm running Windows XP, and the file I want to change the icon of is a Bootstrapper file, I'd like to change the icon for it so that not only does it change the icon of the file on mine, but that same file appears on all devices and computers with the same icon that I change it to.

Hello, I am in the act of converting my computer to firefox browser. I currently have all files that would have been delt with in IE now set to run with firefox. But still core icons, e.g. html files have the internet explorer icon even though they open with firefox. Is there a way to change their icon to firefox's icon (or any other one) ***without making shortcuts?***

Hello, long time user of the many awesome tutorials on here. I can't for the life of me (searching on here and google) find out how to change the File Explorer Icon in Win 8/8.1 - I want to be able to use my custom icon so that it matches the rest of my desktop. I've tried many things including the tutorial of changing what opens with FE, customizing that shortcut works and I can pin it to my taskbar, but when I open downloads/documents or whatever it brings up the old default FE icon on my taskbar. Thanks for any help that can be given!

I used to be able to really easily change the icon of a particular file type in XP, but I can't remember how. WinRAR files are showing up with this icon: (winrar icon inside a page)but I would prefer this icon: (without the page)

How do I change default filetype icon in Win7? I've looked around and I see all sorts of crazy junk with convoluted steps and registry edits, and I know that in XP there used to be an easy way to do it -- does it still exist?

Downloaded 15 mp3 audio files for learning English from British Council website. 13 files show beautiful artwork on the Windows Explore and Media Player as well same with the one on the webside. Howeer 2 files shows Windows defualt image of eighth note. I can not see any information about the icon in the property of the file. I wish to get some help to solve the my problem.

I recently changed an icon on the (File Folder) via; explore > Tools >Folder Options > View > Clicked File Folder > Changed Icon. Now some of my folders will open ( by defaultto VLC Media WinAmp). I changed the ( Plain Manila folder icon) back to it's original state,but to no avail. Within this dialog box there must be a way to reset by default ? Need somehelp. OS XP Home SP2.

I'm trying to figure out a way to change the default icon for a specific file type (ie: change .vbs icon to a custom icon). I've been doing some searching on this forum and I've come across some ways to change default icons but they all seem to involve going through the registry. Is that really the only way to change the default icons on Windows 7? I LOVE 7 so far but that really sucks if thats true. What happened to the screen in the attached image (taken from XP)?

Hello, so I have tried to change the Adobe reader's file extension - .pdf and its icon to a custom one, but there is no 'folder options' tab in win7 to do that. I followed the tutorial here File Extension Icon - Change Default Icon and also tried using the program Filestypeman to change the icon but both had no effect even with the correct path.
I have managed to locate what I believe are the icons for these darn .pdf files at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32dll (and inside icongroup>2)

Any suggestions?

A:How do I change the the .pdf file extensions icon? win7

Changing the extension (portable document format; pdf) will not do anything but corrupt the file. the file will not be converted to anything else by changing the extension.

Also changing the icon for pdf (adobe reader/acrobat) is not impossible but toughmost. You are to enter into C:\Windows\installer. There you have to search foe Adobe's folder (the folders are arranged there not by name but by long numbers). The icons are stored as .exe files there (a feature of MSI based installers). You have to edit the .exe and change the icon using a program like resource hacker.

There may be other easier ways, but I dont know. If somebody can suggest, that will be nice

I use Google SketchUp a lot and each new model/file I create, SketchUp makes a .skb back up file of the last save. I was able to create a subkey in the registry to associate a different icon file for the .skb files but it does not change the icon if the folder view is set to medium, large, or extra large icons and gives a thumbnail preview of the file contents.

Examples of the same files in the same folder below.

Notice how in the thumbnail preview all the file type icons are red and in the detailed list view the .skb file icons are black and the regular .skp files are red, like I want them.

In this particular folder it does not matter, just an example. But when navigating through other folders that contain many image files as well as the .skb & .skp files it can be confusing to tell which is which and I don't want to edit the wrong one. The thumbnail preview can be very helpful so I am trying to avoid changing the folder views.

If anyone has an idea of how to change that icon in the thumbnail view it would save me a lot of time and confusion, thanks in advance.

This happened awhile ago and I'm only NOW questioning its origins, but after a certain update, (or maybe not) a handful file extensions got their default icons changed to a rather peculiar one. It's a built-in icon, but doesn't fit JPEG, PNG, RAR, VHD, or even BMP. I've changed them back to default using FileTypesMan, but I noticed this on my old and current installation of Windows 7. Old was clean, current is in-place. Is there a certain update that causes Windows to change the default icons for some extensions? I mean, it's not major, but just curious why it goes through the trouble to mess with the default icons. On some other computers, such as the ones within my school, I've noticed that some programs show the proper icon within the shortcut properties, but when said program is open on the taskbar, it shows this one (attached) or the icon of a completely different application, like Microsoft word showing the icon of a database file or PowerPoint. Any ideas?

Hi all - i understand that this might call for the use of resource hacker ( which i really dont have much experience using ) but im willing to give it a try or perhaps any other method(s) that might be suggested.

PDF-XChange has a horrible looking icon ( to me anyways ) that it sets for pdf files.i would like to change the i con to another of my choice.

This is the one it sets for PDFs that you save or create by default:This is the one that i would like to make the default for new PDFs:Can anyone advise on how i would go about achieving this?

A:Solved: How Can I Change The Default Icon That A Program Uses For Certain File Type?

Press the Windows key + R to open a Run box.

Type regedit.

Expand: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Scroll down to PDF-XChange.Document (or something similar).

Expand it and click on DefaultIcon.

In the right-hand pane, double-click the default value and change the path to where you saved your customized icon (.ico file).

Hi there -- seems like with every new update done to Windows XP Home (SP2 + all current updates), I develop a new little annoyance.

A few updates back, I noticed that when I change file associations to a specific program opening up my .jpgs, .tifs, and .gifs, from the default (Windows Picture & Fax Viewer), the newly-associated file does open the file, but the icons for those files remains as the default Windows Picture & Fax Viewer.

(I suspect at the bottom of many of problems MAY be the installation of my Lexmark printer -- but then, it's a convenient scapegoat for everything! )

Does anyone have a clue how I can get the newly-associated file extensions to reflect the icon of the program actually being used?

On my WinXP SP3 Home Edition laptop, I visit Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Properties and I check the box for Place volume icon in the Taskbar and I uncheck Mute. This of course works properly but whenever I reboot the laptop, these settings are gone and I have to revisit this and repeat the settings.

Is there a way to configure this so it stays as desired across reboots? Thanks.

A:How to keep volume icon in the Taskbar permanently

jjamjatra, Go to the link below and under the letter "N" scroll down to "Notification Area - Icons Disappearing" then scroll down a little to "Tip: Volume Control disappears in the Notification Area. Once present, run this edit." and download the reg file fix. Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it and answer yes to the import prompt.

Hello, I want to delete the Action Center permanently, not hide it. I know my way around a computer too much to need that silly thing. I can't use the "Turn system icons on and off" menu because I use a replacement shell for explorer.exe (bbLean) and it gives me a error while trying to access "Turn system icons on and off" because bbLean does not have that.P.S. I went to change the forum theme to the PC metro theme and I accidentally clicked the theme for tablets and such and cannot find the theme changer on this theme.

A:Delete Action Center permanently (icon and all)

Hi,

You can't delete it since it runs off of svchost.exe.

Run explorer.exe and hide it in "Turn system icons on and off"

In Regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wscsvc

hi, anyone can tell me how to permanently change the mtu for a given network device in win7? the cmd "netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface ?NameOfConnection? mtu=XXXX store=persistent" does not work for me: mtu value goes back to initial after reboot...thank you

On my dv6t laptop, I let the HP auto-update software install whatever it wanted to update. After it did it, an icon related to Simplepass is pinned to the taskbar and I can't get rid of it. Right-clicking and selecting "Unpin this program from the taskbar" does nothing. How do I get rid of it. I want to keep the program. But don't want the icon pinned to the taskbar. Then, when I opened Microsoft Excel, it said that a hardware change had been detected and that I have to re-activate. Why would this happen? How can I keep it from happening again. Is it better to just never let HP update anything?

Solved! View Solution.

A:Simplepass update, icon now permanently pinned on taskbar

I tried something along the lines of what aperez1221 suggested and it seems to be an acceptable solution. I wasn't sure what you meant by "unchecking the simple pass site box." So I opend SimplePass and went into the settings. I unchecked everything under "Enable Features' and then tried re-checking them one by one. I determined that disabling only LaunchSite solves the problem and seems to leave the program working the way it did before. So thank you aperez1221 for pointing me in the right direction. I'm not sure what I'm missing out on by disabling LaunchSite. This solution may not work for anyone who uses the features enabled by LaunchSite. I haven't figured out what those features are. It seems to be QuickLaunch that lets me swipe a finger to open a program or a web site (in a new browswer window). And I can still login to websites using my finger as well. So with just LaunchSite disabled, SimplePass does what it did before and no longer re-pins itself to the taskbar. I've left this open for now in case someone has a solution that doesn't require disabling LaunchSite, whatever that does.

When I am typing, sometimes I get the character ? instead of ?. After doing some research, all you need to do is select the English(US) instead of English(Can) in the language bar. Apparently, it seems that this language setting only effects the individual software instead of all the software installed on your computer. So for example, if I changed this language setting in Word, this setting will not roll over to Notepad or Chrome or even the OS.

I am wondering if there is a way to permanently save the English(US) setting so it will apply to all of my software?

A:Change Language Permanently

If you go to Regional and Language Settings in the Control Panel, you should be able to set it to English (United States) so that all software defaults to this. Additionally, you can go to the "Keyboards and Languages" tab and click on "Change Keyboards" to ensure that English (US) is installed. If not, you can add it.

No recent changes that I'm aware of No new hardware I don't turn my computer off very often but the last 4 times I've done so upon restart the boot order has changed from hard drive to CD Rom so it won't boot of course. I restart it, pressing escape to go to boot menu and change the order to hard drive and save the changes and boot right up. But it reverts to cd rom on next start

On my Dell XP Pro, msconfig lists a number of applications (not services) from 3rd party vendors, such as HP and QWest, scheduled to launch at start-up. Several times, I've unchecked these items, clicked APPLY, and then re-started my system; nevertheless, when my system has finally rebooted, Windows Task Manager shows them running, and I have to eliminate them in Windows Task manager.

So it appears that somehow, there is some application somewhere that is reversing (i.e. ignoring) my (new) settings I try to establish in msconfig. Is anyone familiar with this problem?

I can figure out several ways of dealing with this problem, such as changing the names of these annoying applications (e.g. from application.exe to application.eze) so they cannot be found (therefore cannot launch), but I'd sure like to know what software it is on my machine that keeps overriding my choices. And also how to change the start-up menu permanently without changing the names of the relevant offending programs.

A:Cannot permanently change msconfig settings

msconfig is a diagnostic utility. If you want to permanently manage startup items you should use a simple app such as Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml).Uncheck whatever you don't want started in that app and let's go from there.

I have really tried everything i can think of and researched so much for answers.Please, i only formatted my computer 2 months ago and then this came out of the blue. I am about to start back at school and i dont want my computer to go bust. I need any help possible.I wake up and i log on and what comes up is not what my profile I logged into looks like and so i figured that my comp had a quick lapse in ability like it had before that made it assume a temp profile because mine could not be found.* So i log out and log back in. No fix. Open my comp check all connections. No fix. System Restore. No Fix.* That's when i found out that i was in TEMP.ESM-01 login not Tarik but i clearly logged into Tarik so i ended up freakin thinking my files were gone. So then i checked and found that when i went to Tarik's docs through My computer it came up empty but when i go to Documents and Settings/Tarik/My docs its all there so "phew" i didn't lose anything but why am i not getting that profile to load?* After looking at it all and doing some research i found out it has to do with roaming profiles yet i don't have a host network i connect to; i am the host. So finally i found something that may have fixed it and downloaded it from Microsoft called "User Profile Hive Cleanup Service".* Didn't Work but what i did notice is that it creates and replaces the TEMP.ESM-01 Profile folder every time i log in with Tarik. So i guess it a profile that... Read more

Can someone tell me how I can permanently change the default font in Word Pad?

TVM

A:Change font permanently in Word Pad?

Hmm, you can use a trick as i think you can't change the default font in Wpad.

Create a rtf document with a "space", select the space, choose your font and size, save as your-template.rtf.In properties, tick read only to avoid modifying it, be sur that rtf files open with Wpad.Change your shortcuts to open Wpad so that they open your-template.rtf and that's it.

There are a whole bunch of XP services that launch automatically when you start up Windoze. These can be turned off manually by using services.msc.

But I've found that at least some of these can not be turned off permanently. An example is Automatic Updates.

Does anyone know if it is possible to turn these off permanently? One obvious way would be to change the name of the service, and that's not hard to do, but there must be a "proper" way to do it. Anyone have any ideas?

A:How to permanently change Services that launch

Using Automatic Updates as in your example, if you right click the Service, Properties and set the Startup Type to Disabled and reboot, does that not keep it from starting again?If you disable Automatic Updates, you will then get an informational message about that, which you will also have to disable (if you want).If you have particular fussy ones, tell us which and maybe we can help. I don't think renaming is a good method.I have many disabled service too. Here is a popular list for XP that will give you some ideas about what can be turned off/disabled/better left alone:http://www.blackviper.com/

I am trying to have my computer boot Linux by default, from an external hard drive, while my internal drive has Windows 10 on it. Unfortunately I cannot get it to work: Windows 10 boots automatically at every restart and cold start.

Steps I've taken so far:The boot order I want is set and saved in BIOS. There's no uEFI on my computer.Windows 10 fast startup option is disabled. I also disabled the hibernation option just in case.

Still, I can only get Linux to boot by going into BIOS every time and selecting the (already selected) external hard drive again. When I then try to mount the internal (Win 10) disk from within Linux, I get an error saying it cannot be mounted because Windows 10 is still using it.

Any ideas how to solve this and give full boot control back to BIOS?

A:How to change boot options permanently (Win 10 not being default)?

Hey Kinimod,

Have a look HERE. (However I just noted you want to boot from an external drive, so I'm not sure if this is applicable)